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WWASHINGTON—A high-ranking American diplomat delivered an emotional reconstruction Wednesday of the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, providing the first detailed public account from an American official who was on the ground in Libya. The testimony from Gregory Hicks, the No. 2 U.S. official in Libya at the time, before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee also drew new attention to key questions about the attacks, and how the administration handled the aftermath.

Jan. 17th was a special day for the KC-10 Extender community. It marked the day KC-10s, aircrews and maintainers have been on continuous deployment for 20 years -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year -- to Southwest Asia in support of combat operations. Facts show the KC-10 will pass a second milestone in March: 30 years of operational service. The KC-10 first entered the Air Force inventory in 1981 and was assigned to Strategic Air Command, or SAC. It remained a SAC asset until 1992 when it was reassigned to the then newly created...

Contractors submitted revised proposals for the U.S. Air Force’s KC-10 CNS/ATM upgrade work this month after the service discovered it botched the first competitive round last year that resulted in a $216 million award going to Boeing. Boeing was ordered to stop work on the contract in October owing to a mistake made by the Air Force in the original competition. Air Force Col. Michael Schmidt, contractor logistics support program director for the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center (where the contract is managed), acknowledged a “need for corrective action associated with the original source selection,” but has not specified the...

Boeing will upgrade cockpits for US Air Force C-130Hs and KC-10 tankers under separate deals announced on 24 June. The USAF has cleared Boeing to launch low-rate initial production (LRIP) for the C-130 avionics modernization programme (AMP). Boeing will deliver five of 20 kits ordered by the USAF during the first lot of LRIP, with the balance produced by the Warner Robbins Air Logistics Centre and also by an unnamed competitor. Boeing developed the AMP kit under a $1.4 billion development programme awarded in 2000 that endured cost overruns and schedule delays until a final restructuring in 2007. Last year,...

1/27/2010 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) -- On Sept. 11, 2001, the world changed for most Americans and among the hardest hit were Capt. Hillary Wykes. Captain Wykes, a KC-10 Extender pilot with the 908th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron at an air base in Southwest Asia, was a flight attendant for United Airlines before entering the Air Force. "I was working for United on Sept. 11 when the airplanes hit the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and crashed in the field in Pennsylvania," said Captain Wykes, who is deployed from the 9th Air Refueling Squadron at Travis Air Force Base,...

United States Air Force KC-10 Extender refueling aircraft over Antarctica. The Photographer Senior Master Sgt. Don Sutherland, United States Air ForceThe Courtesies No. 71 in the spectacular photo gallery of sunsets and sunrises at http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-200702.htm http://www.DoDMedia.osd.mil/DVIC_View/Still_Details.cfm?SDAN=DFST9904792&JPGPath=/Assets/Still/1999/Air_Force/DF-ST-99-04792.JPG

ZHUKOVSKY, Russia, Aug. 18, 2005 – As far as security forces troops are concerned, protecting aircraft in one location is like protecting aircraft in another. The scenery may change, but the procedures don't - unless, of course, the aircraft are in the former Soviet Union. For the 17 members of the 48th Security Forces Squadron from Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, protocol in protecting U.S. aircraft at the Moscow International Air Show and Space Salon at Ramenskoye Airfield here is a bit different from what they're used to following. The security forces members here are not armed, as part of...

Author ArchiveE-mail AuthorSend to a Friend Print Version September 15, 2003, 9:00 a.m.Holes in the SkyWorking with old bird.ighters and bombers get pretty thirsty pretty quickly. An F-16 has a combat radius of about 575 miles, an F-117 about 650 miles. To fly from a base in Kuwait to Baghdad and back is about 700 miles, necessitating at least one meeting with an airborne gas station. During the Iraq campaign, our fighters and bombers were flying upwards of 2,000 sorties each day. And the tankers — those huge lumbering KC-135s and KC-10s — were right there with them, flying...

Life ‘booms’ for KC-10 airman OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM -- Airman 1st Class Katherine Monke operates the boom on a KC-10 Extender during a recent combat mission over Afghanistan. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Rachel Bush) by Senior Airman Rachel Bush 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs 9/8/2003 - OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM (AFPN) -- At midnight, Airman 1st Class Katherine Monke looked out over Afghanistan from here KC-10 Extender. She said one of the best things about her job was just sitting up in the cockpit. “I think to myself, ‘I wonder what my friends back home are doing?’ Then I look...